Advanced Micro Begins Selling 65-Nanometer Processors
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. began shipping personal-computer processors made with a new technique that makes them more efficient, closing a gap with market leader Intel Corp.
Advanced Micro is selling four new Athlon desktop-computer chips made with so-called 65-nanometer technology, the Sunnyvale, California-based company said in a statement today. Personal computers based on the chips go on sale this month.
The move is part of the industry’s race to shrink transistors, the basic building blocks of all chips, to improve performance and get more from each production run. Advanced Micro, which spends about one-fifth the amount Intel does on new plants and equipment, is trying to catch its larger rival.
“It’s silly to suggest that we’re not late compared to Intel, but our transition is very, very rapid,” said Nick Kepler, an Advanced Micro technology development vice president.
Shares of Advanced Micro rose 33 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $21.37 at 10:32 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They had fallen 31 percent this year before today. Intel rose 7 cents to $21.29 in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading and have dropped 15 percent this year.
Intel, based in Santa Clara, California, began selling chips made on 65-nanometer technology in October 2005 and said it will introduce 45-nanometer products in the second half of next year. Kepler, who declined to give a specific date for Advanced Micro’s move to 45-nanometer, said the company plans to eliminate Intel’s lead in adopting new manufacturing technology.
A nanometer is a billionth of meter. A human hair is 60,000 nanometers wide.
Smaller Transistors
Putting a greater number of smaller transistors on computer chips gives the manufacturer the choice of whether to make products more powerful or more efficient.
Advanced Micro, which jointly develops production technology with International Business Machines Corp., has taken market share from Intel with chips that used less energy. Intel responded in July with a complete redesign of its products, replacing Pentium processors with more efficient Core 2 Duos.
Advanced Micro’s four new Athlon products, which cost as much as $301 each, use less power than their Intel counterparts when idle, said David Schwarzbach, an executive of the company’s desktop chip division. That’s vital, he said, since computers spend the majority of their lives in that state.
Intel and Advanced Micro are the only makers of personal- computer processors. At the end of the third quarter, Intel had 76.1 percent of the market, according to Cave Creek, Arizona- based Mercury Research.
By Ivan King, Bloomberg.
